“M-master…” Alysia spoke up. “Look at the bright side. At least, you all made a deep enough impression on her that she created you within her mind. I’m not even in this world. More than that, she wanted you to be the ones who rescued her. She created her own escape. That’s pretty amazing.”

“It’s true…” Shao nodded. “However, this party was destined to fail. Rather, we would have spent forever waiting to begin our mission. When the great purge Celeste spoke of happens, everyone who has been sucked in by Miki will die, and the dungeon inside her will evolve into a more powerful state. We’ll be remade, and she’ll start killing again, but even more next time. We’ll try to save them, fail to act, and then the cycle will repeat until Miki is destroyed or there is no life left in that world. Well, this is the nature of most curses, to absorb and destroy. Miki’s curse is death, so it’s especially nasty.”

“I had been thinking something similar.” I nodded.

“Of course, as I stated, I know what you know, so I’m only repeating back to you your own thoughts. I’m not able to confirm if such a thing is true.”

“R-right…”

I felt that headache coming back again. This was all too surreal. The only saving grace was that this was in a soul dungeon, which meant that these guys technically didn’t have physical bodies. The last thing I’d want is for the soul of Terra or Lydia to end up combining with their real forms, wherever they were. That made me wonder if there wasn’t a way I could use these versions of them to find the real ones. I asked Shao.

“That won’t be possible.” Shao shrugged. “These have no connection to the real ones. They weren’t created from a piece of their soul, but just a memory. Even Elaya possesses more of the original Elaya’s soul than these guys.”

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“I see…” I glanced over at the Hero’s party that was still making a scene.

I found my Slave Communication with the other girls was currently cut off, which was about as expected. It was probably for the best.

“Girls, after we save the day, we should all %^&%!” Hero cried out.

“Yeah! Let’s $^^%!” Lydia added.

“Terra would like this very much!”

“Mmmgdd… mmmddmmm.” Celeste’s chest was no longer being held open, so she was smothered by her cleavage.

“What’s with the swearing?” I demanded.

“I wonder…” Shao tapped her finger on her lips.

“Remember, this dungeon was created by Miki’s mind. Everything created in it essentially comes from her mind.” Alysia offered. “Minds are a complicated thing. You might as well try to interpret dreams as guess why people think a certain way. Perhaps, she just associates vulgarity with swearing. Or, maybe she thinks it is alluring… so when you act sexual she has you use it. Well, she censors it in her own mind, so she is clearly conflicted over it. Notice that Terra, Celeste, and Shao, who she doesn’t see in a lewd light, don’t swear at all.”

“Interesting…”

I felt like I was in a case study regarding Miki’s mind. I had noticed that this village we were in closely resembled Chalm. It didn’t look like the city she grew up in. However, I also noticed that the doors were shorter. If I was to enter a building, I’d need to bend over to get through the doors. Miki was shorter, and just didn’t need that height, so the buildings created in her mind didn’t have them. The outdoors seemed to carry a light scent of Lavender. Was that perhaps her favorite smell?

“Master, it might be best if you put the party in motion.”

“R-right… you said that once she reached a critical mass, she’d evolve. I already accepted I won’t be able to save the city of rabbitkin, but surely once she’s done with it, she’ll be close to evolving.”

“You misunderstand. She’s already reached that state. She’s sitting outside of the city now. Her evolution will be complete in a few hours!”